Bible Stories in Chinese

by John Pasden

17 Dec 2006

From time to time I search for random things using Baidu’s MP3 search. Sometimes I find interesting things, such as Buddhist songs. My most recent interesting find has been Bible stories in Chinese.

One of the Bible stories turned up in a search. I listened to it and rather enjoyed it, and noticed that the filename used a simple numerical progression. I fired up my download manager, and a little while later I had downloaded all 150 Old Testament Bible stories. Based on the filenames of the ones I had, it was easy to guess what the filenames of New Testament Bible stories would be. Pretty soon I had all 120 of those as well. Only later did it even occur to me to check out the site they all came from: www.jdty.com.

That website only lets you download them one by one, but it does have names for all of them, which the filenames don’t. The MP3 files there don’t have any ID3 tags at all. I copied the filenames into a simple index file, then used a program called MP3tag to edit the MP3s’ ID3 tags, giving each MP3 file a title, track number, etc. (That way when you play them on your media player or MP3 player you can see the names of the individual stories.)

Based on the message in the footer, jdtjy.com is not the owner of the copyright for the files. Still, I can’t see any anyone getting upset about me re-releasing these MP3 files in a bulk download, so here they are, until I’m told it’s not kosher:

I think these Bible Stories are really useful listening practice for many Westerners with a Judeo-Christian background. A lot of us grew up hearing these Bible stories, but we may not have heard them recently. Still, when you listen to these MP3s, you have a context, and you can likely figure out which Bible story you’re listening to even if you have no clues besides “Old Testament” (which is how I started out listening to them). That context really helps you fill in any vocabulary or comprehension gaps. It also forces you to learn to recognize the Chinese names of familiar characters such as Jacob, Moses, Abraham, Joseph, etc.

Despite having that familiar context, what makes these Bible stories so interesting to me personally is what’s different. There’s melodramatic music in every episode, and the storytellers took some liberties with the way the stories were told. In doing so, they injected a healthy dose of Chinese culture. Just listen to the way Mary talks to baby Jesus, or the way the Israelites argue with Aaron over creating the golden calf. And then of course, there’s the fun of hearing the voice of God in Chinese, or Abraham sounding like an old Chinese man. To me, it’s just really entertaining.

Download away! If you just want to hear one or two before you download them in bulk, you can download one or two from the jdtjy.com site first. Oh, and if you’re looking for a Chinese Christmas Story, it’s #005 and #006 (in the New Testament, of course).

Note: These are big files. I figure I can handle the load because (1) probably not too many people are going to download them, and (2) Dreamhost gives me a ridiculous amount of bandwidth, of which I use up approximately 0% every month. If bandwidth does become a problem, I might have to figure out how to set up a torrent…

Looking at Bible passages will certainly help of course, but these Bible stories are not just readings out of the Bible. They’re dramatized, and do not correspond to Bible readings very closely on the word level (only on the general plot level).

Yes, JW’s and Mormons are alive and well in China. In a downtown mall which plays video “commercials” on a continuing loop, there is a LDS commercial there in Chinese.

What we need to do if have more folks with the truth hitting the ground and not leaving the harvest fields for the cults who are willing to put feet to their “faith”.

In a city of about 4.5 million where I live (small for China) there are probably less than two dozen Christians working here (we all know each other) all from different groups and denominations but probably about twice that many at least from the JW’s and Mormons. Sad that all the other evangelical denominations put together can’t field half the number of workers of what two cults can field.

Anyway, enough griping, thanks so much to the site owners for pulling these stories together. We have found C2C and other storying approaches to be well received here by the Chinese, so having such a plethora of stories to be able to learn and script out and teach local workers will be a great tool. Thanks for your work!

I picked up a Chinese-English bible from a christian guy I met in Beijing. It has English on the right columns and Chinese on the left, so it’s easy to take a look at the translation.

John, you’re not seriously concerned about copyright law are you? I had to laugh when I read that. Didn’t you ever download the newest hollywood release off your university’s server? Anyway, religious material is generally free because the goal of the producers is not to make money.

As a Chinese Christian living in an English-speaking country who has a 2 y.o. daughter, I would love to teach her (1) Chinese (2) Christian values. It’s cool that with these Chinese bible stories both aims are achieved, and I don’t even have to do it myself 🙂

at the bottom of the page, i.e. they searched and downloaded from the web themselves, and shared with us on their own website. Copyright still belongs to the creator of those MP3s, but there’s no way I can find out who the original creators were.

You can assume that the original copyright holder has granted the re-distribution rights to jdtjy.com, but you might also want to send them an email to ask about it.

Jehovah’s Witnesses get everywhere and never miss a trick when it comes to flogging those Watchtower tracts. Our local town has had a sudden influx of Chinese MBA students studying at the University. As a result, my wife’s “Beginner’s Chinese” evening course at the local College has been invaded by JWs hoping to gain basic tract-pushing competent in Mandarin…

I think working with a english/chinese dual language bible can really be a good tool to kick one’s chinese up a notch – the langauge is more sophistcated than newspapers or tv, but not too obscure, with some classical referneces – you can tell when new words are names (both because biblical names tend to get Sinified in goofy ways etc and because you have the text on the other side)

In the New Testament at least there is also a fairly limited range of nouns and verbs, so you aren’t endessly looking up obscure vocab and can focus on understanding more grammar.

There is actually a neat version of the HeHeBen (traditional Chinese Bible) paired with the KJV but which also has the Pinyin above the Chinese. I wish someone would take this concept and do something similar with the XinYiBen (Chinese New Translation)which uses much more contemporary Chinese than the HeHeBen, and pair it with one of the more modern English translations (ESV, NASB, etc) with the Pinyin. That would be awesome.

You can get this bilingual with Pinyin Bible online via several sites in the states, but they charge up to $120USD for one. If you happen to be in Asia though, next time you are in Hong Kong you can get them there for about $280-$320HKD (about $45-$50USD) in most Christian bookstores there.

@Steve
I doubted if there is correct grammar in the Bible translation. At least to me, it’s the reason why it’s hard to understand even after I became a Christian.I have never read the Chinese column since I started appreciating the Bible.

for your reference, the translation I refered to above is the one whose copyright is owned by Chinese Bible International Limited. It’s HQ is in HK and I believe they have brances in both America and Canada.

A good way to learn Chinese is to get some kid books from city library and dig into it deeply.

Good find John, its always hard for me to discuss religion with Chinese people and Christmas is really a kicker to explaine, did you notice the Chinese are realy embracing Christmas this year as far as decorations and santa go anyway?

For Mandarin learners, the Chinese Bible is actually a good resource for improving your Mandarin. It is free and contains a large vocabulary. I have actually improved my Mandarin significantly just by listen to a Mandarin audio book and repeating the words.

John,
Thanks so much for posting these; they have been a true blessing to me this year!

I’ve used these stories to practice/maintain my Chinese this past year (I listen to a segment, then try to summarize it in my own words or repeat the conversation); it’s also great to hear God’s word as I practice.